Embodiments relate to an environmental control unit (“ECU”) and, more particularly, to a system and method providing for the ECU in which replacement parts are remanufactured, using additive manufacturing process, from recycled parts taken from the ECU.
Additive manufacturing techniques enable the rapid creation of objects, structures, portions thereof, prototypes, replacement parts, experimental parts, and make-shift items. Such items may be useful in inhospitable environments such as outer space, on a celestial body, aboard a marine vessel, underwater and remote environments. However, current additive manufacturing devices generally require a flat, stable, gravitationally-uniform environment throughout a build in order to successfully produce a part. Such conditions do not exist in such inhospitable environments as outer space, on or around other planets and celestial bodies, aboard spacecraft, aboard aircraft, on marine vessels (including submarines) or in other extreme environments. More specifically, current additive manufacturing devices cannot function in such environments due to, among other things, lack of gravity (e.g., in orbit, aboard a space station), low and high frequency vibration (e.g., aboard a marine vessel, on a submarine), unpredictable Shocks (e.g., rocking and jostling of a marine vessel due to rough seas), and pitching or other alteration of the gravitational force relative to the build axis (e.g., during parabolic aircraft flight, a submarine rising or diving).
An environmental control and life support system (“ECLSS”), which is a type of an ECU, is a life support system that provides, or controls, functions needed to maintain life, such as, but not limited to, filtration, atmospheric pressure, fire detection and suppression, oxygen levels, waste management and water supply. A non-limiting example of an ECLSS currently in use is the ECLSS aboard the International Space Station (“ISS”). The highest priority for the ECLSS is the ISS atmosphere, but the system also collects, processes, and stores waste and water produced and used by the crew. This may involve recycling fluid from, toilet, and condensation from the air. If the ECLSS fails, the crew has a backup option in the form of bottled oxygen and solid fuel oxygen generation (SFOG) canisters.
To ensure that the amount of time the ECLSS is unavailable after failure is kept at a minimized delay, replacement parts are stored on the ISS. Not only do such replacement parts consume storage space on the ISS, but the cost to transport the replacement parts from earth to the ISS are extremely high, costing in excess of tens of millions of dollars, depending upon the weight of the payload or specific part. As further illustrated, currently, launch costs per kilogram to low Earth orbit (LEO) are well over $1,000 per kilogram. As of 2013, estimated cost per kilogram of the Atlas V® vehicle (available from United Launch Alliance, LLC of Centennial, Colo.) is $13,000. The Falcon 9 v. 1.1 vehicle (available from Space Exploration Technologies, Inc. of Hawthorne, Calif.) delivers payloads to LEO for $4,000 per kilogram.
Currently, the ECLSS aboard the ISS is a significant system that is housed within an equipment rack. Considering the confined space aboard the ISS, the ECLSS consumes space that may be used for other functions. The use of space is multiplied when considering that spare components for the ECLSS are likely stored on the ISS as well.
As another non-limiting example, similar storage issues and cost issues (though not as costly) are realized in aquatic environments, such as, but not limited to, a submarine in the midst of a mission where it is not supposed to rise to the surface or an underwater laboratory or station.
Users and manufacturers of an ECU would benefit from a modular ECU in which replacement parts may be created from material that is from the part to be replaced where the replacement party is additively manufactured in the environment where the ECU functions.